Question

My question is about tabulating data in MySql. I was wondering, how to best represent this javascript array in MySql? What index should I use? I’m going to use the data to populate a javascript array via PHP.

A[i] represents a card. B[i] represents a matching card.

A = new Array();        
A[0] = new Array();
A[0][0]='eat';
A[0][1] = 1;
A[0][2] = 0;
A[1] = new Array();
A[1][0]='drink';
A[1][1] = 2;
A[1][2] = 0;


B = new Array();        
B[0] = new Array();
B[0][0]='tacos';
B[0][1] = 1;
B[0][2] = 0;
B[1] = new Array();
B[1][0]='tequila';
B[1][1] = 2;
B[1][2] = 0;

I need to be able to uniquely identify components within the array later, so that I can use parts of the data to populate new arrays (So I can use and combine different cards into a new array). For example, I might want to populate a new array in javascript using A[0][0], A[0][1], A[0][2],B[0][0], B[0][1] and info from another array stored in the MySql (Lets say Y[2][0], Y[2][1],Y[2][2],Z[2][0], Z[2][1]).

This is what I’ve come up with so far.

-----------------------------------------
|  card pair  | card |card info|Tag|Tag2|
-----------------------------------------
|      1      |   A  |   eat   | 1 |  0 | 
|      1      |   B  |  tacos  | 1 |  - |
|      2      |   A  |  drink  | 2 |  0 |
|      2      |   B  | tequila | 2 |  - |
-----------------------------------------

Maybe I need to add a primary index to the above one?

-------------------------------
|card pair |card info|Tag|Tag2|
-------------------------------
|      1A  |   eat   | 1 |  0 | 
|      1B  |  tacos  | 1 |  - |
|      2A  |  drink  | 2 |  0 |
|      2B  | tequila | 2 |  - |
-------------------------------

I thought the card pair could be the index. Not sure if this is possible or a good idea. Also not sure what type of index I would use if I did.

If you have a better way to tabulate the data or can recommend what type of index to use I’d much appreciate it.

EDIT: I think I can do away with the last 2 columns (Tag and Tag2), so I think I might just use the table as below.

----------------------
|card pair |card info|
----------------------
|      1A  |   eat   |
|      1B  |  tacos  |
|      2A  |  drink  | 
|      2B  | tequila |
----------------------

Should I add an incrementing index to the table? Is the card pair sufficient as the index?If yes, what is the best index type to use?

Thanks!

Answer 1

well, from a database perspective, you will want to ‘normalize’ this information.

I think it would be more like this:

card
------------
card_id
info

card_pair
------------
card_1_id
card_2_id